This invention relates generally to electrical contacts for use with electrical sockets for mounting integrated circuits and the like and more particularly to a method and apparatus for storing the contacts in a manner which enhances operation of the socket assembly apparatus with which the contacts are used.
Such sockets generally comprise a body of electrically insulative material having a plurality of contact receiving apertures extending from a top surface down to a bottom surface of the body. A common type of socket has a pair of rows of contact receiving apertures. Depending upon the application for which the socket is to be used, a variety of contact configurations have become common with regard to the spacing between the rows as well as the total number of contacts in a row. One of the most common is a sixteen position or contact socket having two rows of eight contacts with the socket being slightly less than an inch in length. On the other hand, sockets could have many more contact positions and be several inches in length. Although there are many socket variations, it is an accepted industry standard to space the contacts in a row the same distance from one another.
In copending and coassigned application Ser. No. 475,778, filed Mar. 16, 1983, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,378 a method and apparatus is described and claimed for assembling contact elements in such sockets which includes directing the socket bodies sequentially onto a track along a first path while a continuous carrier strip having spaced contacts depending therefrom is payed from a reel and directed along a second path which tangentially meets the first path with the contact elements sequentially being received in the contact receiving apertures. The contacts are seated, staked and severed from the carrier strip in a continuous manner.
As stated in the referenced application, sockets can be assembled in accordance with the method and apparatus contained therein at a high rate easily exceeding 1200 inches per minute. However conventional contact strip reels which last for ten minutes or more with slower assembly machines before needing replacement have now become the limiting factor in the assembly since they are depleted so rapidly thereby requiring constant attention and constant reel changing and even shutting down of the apparatus to permit the reel changing. That is, a conventional contact strip reel has a strip of contacts rolled up on itself with an interliner separating contiguous layers from one another that is limited in diameter to a size which can be reasonably handled by an operator. A full reel contains in the order of twenty-eight thousand contacts since the contacts are rather bulky having previously been stamped into their selected configuration. Thus at the rate of 1200 inches per minute it will be seen that a full reel will be emptied in little over two minutes.